UNH study: Child poverty racial disparities persist

Tuesday

Apr 18, 2017 at 9:08 AMApr 18, 2017 at 9:08 AM

DURHAM — A University of New Hampshire study has found that child poverty continues to decline, but racial-ethnic disparities persist.

Between 2014 and 2015 child poverty fell for all race-ethnicities except Asians, but patterns in levels and characteristics of child poverty persist, according to researchers at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire.

Black and Hispanic children experienced some of the largest declines in poverty between 2014 and 2015, but nationwide child poverty among black children (36.5 percent) is still nearly three times as high as those among non-Hispanic white and Asian children (12.5 and 12.1 percent, respectively). Poverty rates are highest for black children in the Midwest and South (43.2 and 36 percent) and for Hispanic children in the Northeast (33.3 percent). Black child poverty is highest in rural places and Hispanic child poverty is highest in cities.

“Given the well-established connection between child poverty and brain development, educational attainment, later labor market participation and long-term health incomes, the high incidence of place and race based child poverty in the U.S. is of particular concern,” the researchers said. “Closer attention to these disparities may nudge policy makers to think carefully about the context of place in efforts to alleviate poverty and increase youth opportunity.”

View the full report here: https://carsey.unh.edu/publication/2015-child-poverty. The research was conducted by Jessica Carson, vulnerable families research scientist at the Carsey School; Beth Mattingly, director of research on vulnerable families at the Carsey School; and Andrew Schaefer, a vulnerable families research scientist at the Carsey School.